"It
is
worth seeing
for the
tremendous performances by the lead
players."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

"Trojan Eddie" is a bleak and
unsentimental
portrait
of a gypsy clan in a small unnamed Irish town. John
Power (Richard
Harris) is
the
70-year-old, white-haired, gaunt faced, strong-armed
patriarch to a
gang
of itinerant Irish gypsies, thieves, tinkers and
unscrupulous salesmen
known as travelers. He is mean-spirited and ornery.

The film is not a touristy tale; it is one that is
based on
Irish
folklore. The main problem is that the story gets
bogged down on
unnecessary
subplots, which makes it difficult to focus entirely
on the main story.
It is seen through the eyes of a glib and talented
salesman, known as
Trojan
Eddie (Stephen Rea), who
can't handle things when he isn't
hustling merchandise
for the big boss, John Power. His private life is a
mess. His ex-wife
Shirley
(Ball) is a tramp. She drops by his house needing a
place to stay,
which
he generously agrees to, but she treats him with
disdain, getting his
ire
when she taunts him that he might not be the father of
the kids. He
raises
their two young daughters without her help after he
spent a year in
prison
for a bungled robbery, taking the full rap, not
snitching on his
weasel-like
partner Rayme (Sean McGinley).
Ginger Power (Brendan Gleeson),
the
boss's bully son,
also treats him like a loser.

Eddie is a worrier with a constant look of anxiety;
he only
seems
happy when he's auctioning off the stolen merchandise.
He is the only
character
that the audience can relate to in a kindly way, even
though he's a
lowlife
hustler willing to cheat his friends and neighbors. He
might have some
appeal and some might find him to be in a strange way
likable despite
being
a hustler.

Harris is powerful as an old, prideful man, who
can't
forget how
tough he was as a youth. He is intimidating to
everyone around him.
Only,
he is saddened by the loss of his wife and eyes a sexy
teen-age girl
who
reminds him of her, Kathleen (Aislin McGuckin). He
tempts this
itinerant
girl with his possessions and asks her hand in
marriage. After she
accepts,
she is chaperoned home by Eddie and his hustling
partner, Dermot
(Stuart Townsend),
John's
nephew, a kid about the age of Kathleen's. Dermot has
sex with
her
in the field and John finds out about this, though he
is not sure if it
is Dermot or a boy seen talking to her afterwards,
Patsy McDonagh
(Jason Gilroy).
But
he still insists on the wedding.

At the wedding the couple collect eleven thousand
pounds
for their
dowry in a tin box, which Eddie brings into the house
and gives to
Kathleen.
But she has other plans as she runs away on her
wedding night with
Dermot
and with the money, to the embarrassment of John. He
immediately sends
his men out looking for them. He also thinks Eddie
might be a part of
this,
warning him that all will be forgiven if the girl
comes back when she
is
ready and the money is returned intact.

The cast is top-notch, led by Harris's bone-chilling
arrogant hoodlum
portrayal; he is someone who can't stop bullying
people. Rea is equally
as good, in a role that is a take-off on the frenetic
Crazie Eddie
character
who years ago was seen hawking goods on American TV.
He is emotionally
wrought at not being able to straighten his life out,
and not till the
very end of the film do we see him get some
satisfaction from dealing
with
his bullying boss.

The landscape reflected the hard life of its
denizens. It
showed
the muddy roads of the rural Ireland community, their
shanty houses,
the
dingy buildings where the salesmen auctioned off the
stolen goods, and
the rotten attitude the itinerants had toward the
townies.

The actors brought life and passion to this morbid
story of
failed
love, a failed love for both the young and the old. It
is a story of
how
self-interest and thievery rule the day. A very
scornful look at what
some
will do to get what they want or think they want. It
is worth seeing
for
the tremendous performances by the lead players and
the gritty local
flavor
of an out of the way place, not usually seen in a film
emanating from
Ireland.

Written by Irish playwright Billy Roche and directed
with
verve by
Gillies MacKinnon, whose last feature, Small
Faces, was
a
coming of age tale set in the violence-ridden housing
projects of
Glasgow
in the '60s.